This is the most humble day of my life: Rupert Murdoch

LONDON: "This is the most humble day of my life," Rupert Murdoch, House of Commons, Westminster, July 2011.

An hour or so after the 80-year-old media legend Rupert Murdoch and his son James walked into Portcullis House to answer a structured grilling from British parliamentarians, Murdoch senior began the proceedings with what will likely become a historic statement.

From early in the day crowds of public and media queued up for a glimpse of the first time ever in 40 years that Mr Murdoch, long credited with being the kingmaker of British politics, faced the parliament. With son James butting in at various points to "protect" his father from questioning, and solicitious wife Wendi sitting just behind providing moral (and whispered) support. The father son duo put up what critics immediately panned as a performance to play the poor old man sympathy card.

Asked about his various visits through the back door of 10, Downing St for tea and tete-a-tete with various Prime Ministers, from Blair, to Brown, to Cameron – he said he "just did what I was told". For the first time, a sub-committee hearing was the stuff of national and international high drama – pubs around the country stopped beaming sports and switched to the live coverage of the Murdoch hearings.

As the thrust of Murdoch's defence became clearer – he didn't know, and trusted the wrong people – the bartender at a packed pub in west London joked :"Oh, all this couldn't happen to a nicer man," to peals of derisive laughter from his audience. Analysts were predicting this line of defence could backfire on Rupert Murdoch, with increasing small shareholders of NewsCorp questioning his ability to head the company almost single-handed.

The Murdochs faced parliament, just before a potentially more controversial questioning of the former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, currently released on bail after being arrested. Meanwhile another committee was examining the former commissioner of the Met Police, Paul Stevenson, and his deputy, John Yates, who both resigned yesterday under pressure. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that BskyB's board may ask James Murdoch to give up his position in the broadcaster as chairman, at least until the mess at News International is cleared up.

The father son duo were more than apologetic, and Mr Murdoch, in many cases, pointed out that News of the World was less than 1% of his business, and he wasn't aware of the intricacies of the goings on in London. "Perhaps I lost sight of NoW," Murdoch senior said. He said he first heard of the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago. A prepared opening statement, that the Murdochs wanted to read out, was an elaboration of the content of Mr Murdoch's signed apology in advertisements last Sunday.

"We closed down News of the World because we were ashamed," Rupert told the committee, while son James denied it was a commercial decision or that there are immediate plans of starting a Sunday paper. It is unlikely that Mr Murdoch senior's statement will endear him to the sacked staffers of NoW. When asked why he let them go while protecting his son and Ms Brooks, Mr Murdoch again said he was ashamed of a lot of what had happened.

Meanwhile, David Cameron, the beleaguered prime minister, is cutting short his visit to South Africa, and returning to London for emergency sessions of Parliament. Mr Cameron is under increasing pressure for having hired Andy Coulson, former editor of News of the World – especially since two top police officials lost their jobs for the sin of having hired Mr Coulson's deputy at the Met Police as their media advisor.

The drama continues – NewsCorp shares continued in freefall, a post mortem is to be done on the body of Sean Hoare, the ex-NoW reporter who turned whistleblower and found dead in his home over the weekend, and the scandal continued to claim one scalp after another.